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Writer's picturePolly Alice McCann

"Outstanding...Memorable" Kirkus applauds Nagler's "Stay with Me, Wisconsin" & interview on air

Updated: Aug 29, 2022

Wow. Thanks to Kansas City Radio KKFI and Maria Vasquez Boyd, our author was featured on Kansas City's own ArtSpeak Radio this June. Listen here!


It's been a great journey launching Coyote Point Press with editor Polly Alice McCann and author JoAnneh Nagler. But don't take our word for it, here's what Kirkus had to say!


"The 11 tales in Nagler’s collection encompass relatable themes readers will recognize, like survival, longing, connection, grief, and the bonds of family, with each playing out across America’s wind-swept dairy landscape and beyond. The tender, intimate opener, “Ponty Bayswater,” chronicles the beautifully fluid love life of a war veteran and insurance salesman who learned about the mechanics of sexuality at age 12 from his “loopy Aunt Violet.” Readers will get a sense of the author’s uncanny knack for intriguing characterization from her description of Violet, who spoke with a “nicotine bark” and sported “pink cat-eye glasses with fake diamonds, had a head of tightly curled gray and black hair and wore bright red lipstick, even at home.” The evolution of families forms the framework for other stories, like “Asa at the Foundry,” in which passion and pain bloom amid “stupid summer heat.” In “Maximus,” a Mexican son transcends cultures when he immigrates to America by car trunk. The pain of parental loss is brilliantly captured in “Fishing,” as a daughter’s grief is only soothed by her desire to remember her father by fishing in the Wolf River.


The most moving stories encapsulate the epiphany felt by characters who discover love in unexpected places.

The most moving stories encapsulate the epiphany felt by characters who discover love in unexpected places. The callousness of a perfume journalist’s mean boyfriend in “Leaving Lefty” forces him to reevaluate how he recovers from broken relationships to better appreciate “who is there to love me and let me love them back.” Among the collection’s shorter, more potent tales is the unforgettably gritty, nine-page yarn “Claire Rose,” which portrays how a traumatized wife processes a horrific ordeal involving her child. Nagler sketches in the difficult details of healing and the grief and anger that eventually yield to places where “pink flowers come up year after year without being asked, in a place they’re not supposed to grow.”


Whether the stories concern age, death, cruelty, or love, the author creates bold, authentic characters with no choice but to adapt to circumstances they’d never expected in order to proceed with strength and grace. Orbited by players who are bound by mortality, ancestry, pathos, and perseverance, this emotionally satisfying volume becomes a sublime, interconnected wonder.

An outstanding collection of tales with delightfully diverse and memorable characters.

Eleven sensual and modern-day short stories about love, loss, sex, devotion, and desire. Set in the small lake towns and suburbs of the country's Midwestern heartland, the tales thread from one heart to another with extraordinary effectiveness and power. Lovers, partners, family members and friends-they push courageously toward love, and often win. Intimate and impeccably crafted, they invite us into the passionate world of one of the most important new voices on the American literary scene. JoAnneh Nagler, author of "Naked Marriage," wows her fans again with her first foray into short fiction, where they will beg her to stay.

Coyote Point Press is a new imprint of Flying Ketchup Press ® for excellent short fiction located in Kansas City, MO. We are proud to champion new and diverse regional voices with the story power of the heartland. Meet our first author raised in the WI, and as one reviewer said, 'she has captured the unique blend of reserve and friendliness inherent’ in the Midwest. See


FAQ:

Title: Stay With Me, Wisconsin

Date of Publication: January 10th, 2022

Author Website: www.anartistrylife.com

Location: Kansas City, Missouri

Comps: Alice Monroe, Laurie Colwin, Richard Ford

TagLine: The literary richness of Paula McLain’s “The Paris Wife” meets the evocative sensuality of Water for Chocolate,” set in the contemporary Midwestern Heartland.

Page count: 278

Price: $18.99 softcover. eBook price: $9.99

ISBN-13: 9781970151-93-0 LOC: 2021944262


 

Media Questions: Hannah Andress editors@coyotepointpress.com



Social Media:

Fb @flyingketchuppress

IG @flying_ketchup_press, @anaristrygirl

Twitter@press_flying, @anartistrygirl


Follow the action on social media via these hashtags: #StayWithMe #StayWithMeWisconsin #JoAnnehNagler #anartistrygirl #anartistrylife


Previous Book Media spots:

Huffington Post: https://bit.ly/37gH5aQ

For more media links and interviews, please contact anartistrygirl@yahoo.com.



 

JoAnneh Nagler is the author of the upcoming collection of short stories, Stay with Me, Wisconsin (January 2022) Coyote Point Press and imprint of Flying Ketchup Press, as well as three nonfiction books, Naked Marriage; How to Be an Artist and The Debt-Free Spending Plan, two of which were Amazon Top-100 titles. Her books have been featured in The New York Times, Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post, Essence Magazine, U.S. News and World Report, and more. Her fiction has appeared in the literary journals New Haven Review, Glimmer Train, Mobius, You Might Need to Hear This, and Gold Man Review. www.AnArtistryLife.com

Coyote Point Press is the literary fiction imprint of Flying Ketchup Press, publishing short stories of the highest caliber. We believe in exceptional fiction that pushes the boundaries of genres and spans emotional landscapes, taking readers behind the masks and under the skin of our evocative, complicated and frail humanity. Our stories will thrill and awaken your heart with bouts of passion, fury, and pleasure; tenderness, hope, and joy; and most importantly, to every sensual moment that makes us feel fully human and alive.



 


Flying Ketchup Press ® grassroots and artist-run, we are a trademarked small press in Kansas City to champion new and diverse voices in poetry and short story. Our dream is to salvage lost treasure troves of written and illustrated work-- to create worlds of wonder and delight; to share stories. Maybe yours.



You can find us at Home | Flying Ketchup Press


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